Ford is making a multibillion-dollar bet on electric vehicles.

At the Louisville Assembly Plant in Kentucky on Monday morning, Ford executives announced that they plan to retool the factory so they can roll out a midsize pickup truck in the $30,000 range within 18 months.

That would be not just cheap for an electric vehicle but competitively priced for a truck — period. Ford's own electric F-150 Lightning and the Chevrolet Silverado EV both start at around $50,000. Among their competitors, the Tesla Cybertruck starts at more than $62,000, and the cheapest Rivian is more than $70,000. On the gas side, meanwhile, the midsize, gas-powered Ford Ranger starts at $35,000.

This isn't the first time Ford has bet big on EVs. The Lightning, a splashy full-size pickup, was an ambitious vehicle whe

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